


How I Ended Up Teaching a Part Time Eldritch Abomination

by JohnBurtonLee



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen, The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Gen, POV Harry Dresden, Reincarnation, Shikako is a troll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24066385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnBurtonLee/pseuds/JohnBurtonLee
Summary: Harry Dresden acquires a couple of students over dinner. Too bad one of them spent too much time with Hatake Kakashi in a past life.
Relationships: Harry Dresden & Nara Shikako, Harry Dresden & The Carpenter Family
Comments: 32
Kudos: 592
Collections: Exchange no Jutsu 2020, Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection





	How I Ended Up Teaching a Part Time Eldritch Abomination

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KuroHikaTsuchi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuroHikaTsuchi/gifts).



> Shikako Nara reincarnated into Dresden Files as the younger twin of Daniel Carpenter. Takes place just after Blood Rites.

If there was one thing Harry could say about Tabitha Carpenter, it was that she was absolutely the daughter of Michael and Charity. For her age, she was tall, blonde and athletic, the very image of a teenage valkyrie. Having met someone Harry suspected was an actual valkyrie, that wasn't an exaggeration. She had also inherited Michael's indomitable will and love for family as well as Charity's willingness to do terrible, terrible things to anyone who threatened them. Harry would know, he had accidentally soulgazed her once.

Harry could be a bit fuzzy on things like ages, so he wasn't sure how old Tabitha Carpenter was when he soulgazed her. Hell's Bells, sometimes he needed a pencil and paper to work out how old _he_ was. She was young, though. It was definitely before she was ten. 

Tabitha's soul was _complex_. It was burning shadows, darkness that gave off light, secrets hidden in plain sight, earth that moved like water and words as solid as stone. Her love and protectiveness to her family were one of the few things that was simple in there. But, yeah, she would totally murder the hell out of Harry if she thought it would protect her family, and Harry could actually respect that. It was a disturbing impression from a pre-teen, but the girl was smart enough to know that her father had enemies.

Another thing she had in common with her father was a form of non-obvious straightforwardness. Though the reason Harry had trouble predicting Michael was because the man was a bloody saint and Harry was not a good person, despite whatever Michael claimed. Tabitha was just deviously straightforward. If that statement didn't make any sense that was because you'd never met one of the Sidhe. 

As an example, she absolutely hated school. For most kids that would lead to ditching and acting out, making twelve years of compulsory learning feel even longer. Tabitha looked at her options and decided that the best way out was through and graduated high school at the age of thirteen. She hated _school_ , not learning, and actually turned around and enrolled in the University of Chicago on a scholarship to study mathematics of all things.

That said, Harry didn't know how much studying she actually did, because at some point she had somehow become Murphy's favorite sparring partner, which implied a lot of time spent training no matter what kind of physical gifts she inherited. He didn't even know that they knew each other until one day when he dropped in on the blonde cop to ask for a favor and Tabitha was already there.

(Michael had basically insisted that if Tabitha was going to be using public transportation on her own to go to the university then she should be able to defend herself. But after training her himself, he realized that he had perhaps made his daughter a bit too lethal. Murphy was chosen as a female about Tabitha's size who knew aikido. Harry still boggled at the idea of someone going to Murphy to become _less_ lethal.)

So Harry was understandably... let's go with _concerned_ , when Tabitha insisted that her parents invite Harry over for dinner to show off his new dog. Perhaps it wasn't completely out of character for a fourteen year old girl, but he would bet actual money that wasn't her real goal.

She definitely cooed appropriately over Mouse, and called on the skills of her biblical namesake to give Mouse a doggy vest. Though it was odd that she acted as if Mouse had been a hat in a past life. At least Charity and Michael seemed equally confused as to why she thought that puppies were headwear. Daniel scowled when his twin put Mouse on his head, so maybe it was a girl thing? Alicia certainly behaved as if Mouse was haute couture.

There did seem to be some last minute changes to the food once the family saw what happened to Harry's hand, but no one was crass enough to say anything about it. There was just a slight delay in food being served and chicken salad showed up on the dinner table even though Harry knew that they normally didn't eat it. Hope wondering what that stuff even was was the give away.

"So, hypothetically speaking," Tabitha started in a way that made everyone at the dinner table turn and look at her. Harry wondered if anyone else got the creepy feeling going down their spines, and noticed that the hairs on Matthew's arm were literally standing on end. "If the teenage daughter of an important member of the supernatural community developed magic powers, what should she know?"

"Tabby, you promised you wouldn't tell!" Molly hissed in what was probably supposed to be a whisper, but it didn't really help in preventing people from hearing.

"What? I was asking for myself," Tabitha stage whispered back, raising a noticeably glowing hand.

Molly shrank in her seat. "Is there any way I can erase the last five minutes?"

"That would be against the Laws of Magic," Harry said reflexively.

Tabitha cocked an eyebrow. "As in that's impossible, or there's a fine if you try?"

Harry winced, but this was exactly the kind of thing newbie practitioners needed to know. "It's usually a death sentence, even with extenuating circumstances."

Tabitha shot Molly an "I told you so" look. Molly didn't seem to notice it, as she was staring at Harry in shock.

Harry sighed. "I'm not gonna defend this policy, but the Council believes that a practitioner that violates any of the Seven Laws of Magic is generally too far gone to be redeemed." Rubbing the back of his head he added, "Which really sucks if you don't know it's against the rules."

"Language," Charity said, but it seemed reflexive. Frankly, Harry didn't know what the expression on her face meant, but she was definitely not really paying attention to his language.

Michael sighed. "Why don't we take this to the study? Unless any of the rest of you have developed magic powers?"

That was actually a less silly question than it sounded since magic tended to run in families.

Molly and Tabitha had a hushed argument on the way to the study that seemed more like a series of angry growls, making Harry very glad that he wasn't in charge of them.

To head off any more arguments, he asked "So how did you figure out you had magic?"

"How did you think I'm able to go toe to toe with Karrin?"

Harry considered that for a bare second. "Yeah, if I fought Murphy every day I'd probably develop superpowers, too." It definitely made Tabitha seem less masochistic.

"Karrin's great. Terrible taste in men, but great."

Thinking about her ex-husbands, Harry had to agree. Though for some reason he felt like he was being insulted.

"I didn't go all Dragonball at first, just faster than I had any right to be, which I guess is kind of going Dragonball? Then I figured out how to manipulate the energy underneath my skin."

"And you, young lady?" asked Michael.

Molly glared at her little sister. 

"Don't blame me. I just wanted you to hear what kind of rules you might need to pay attention to. It's your fault that you outed yourself." Tabitha tilted her head. "Pretend I said that in a way that didn't make you sound like you were in the closet. Not that there's anything wrong with that if you were. Well, I guess being a- what's a female wizard called? Witch? -is a bit like being in the closet. Unless you're Harry, who has it on his business card, so he's out and proud." She blinked at him a few times. "Did you say you got a new male roommate?"

Entered college at thirteen and Tabitha still had the ability to say awkward things that rivaled Harry's own. Michael and Charity, bless their hearts, didn't care about that kind of thing. However, they also knew that Harry was straight, which was probably why they were (poorly) hiding looks of amusement. Molly, on the other hand, had a look of disappointment? Oh, no. He wasn't even contemplating what that might mean.

"I sort of got Thomas kicked out of his old place. Letting him stay with me is only fair."

"Ahh... Thomas," Tabitha said as if tasting the name. "Full version of the name and not a vaguely insulting nickname."

Harry prayed to God that his friend hadn't somehow managed to raise a yaoi fangirl. He couldn't even use the internet and he still heard plenty of horror stories. Hopefully, since this was Michael's house, the Big Guy would be a bit more receptive than usual. At least the fourteen year old having gay fantasies about him made the idea of the sixteen year old having a crush on him less scary. 

Wow. He was really bad at looking for a silver lining.

"Tabby, would you shut up," Molly hissed.

"Well, you weren't talking so I decided to stop any uncomfortable silences from developing."

Molly threw her hands in the air. "Fine! I didn't want mom to see what I was wearing and suddenly she wasn't able to see me."

Oh good. His prayer was answered and Tabitha wasn't a yaoi fangirl. She just wanted to annoy her sister into compliance. That wasn't at all a bad omen about living with his own brother. Still, Harry wanted to keep the conversation focused on magic and not on what Molly had been wearing. That awkward conversation could wait until he was no longer in the neighborhood. "So we've got a human night light and the invisible girl. Have you done any other experimentation?"

After some discussion it turned out that Tabitha was probably what the Council would classify as a lesser practitioner. All she could do was manipulate her biological energy. Granted, that was at an impressive level if it let her keep up with Murphy, but it was likely that Tabitha couldn't violate the Laws of Magic even if she wanted to. Maybe eventually the bit about transforming people, but for now it sounded like she could only manipulate her own life energy. Well, no, there were magics that anyone could do that could violate the Laws, but without talent they could only be done in a very premeditated manner. Frankly if Tabitha wanted to kill someone that badly she'd just bash their head in and Murph was already working on reining those impulses in.

"Molly, on the other hand, she sounds like she has the full range of magical abilities that any Council Wizard does. If she had focused on removing the memory of seeing her from Charity's mind rather than not being seen, she could have done it. And that would be a violation of the Third Law."

Molly definitely looked pale at that.

Michael cast his eyes on Harry. "Now if I only knew a friendly Council Wizard who could help her train her power."

Tabitha raised her hand. "Isn't the idea to keep her out of trouble?" she asked in a very dubious tone. In a show of the good child raising habits, Tabitha did not look at Harry's hand when she said that.

"Well, he can always provide an example of what not to do," her mother said. Sadly, that was Charity thinking her best of Harry. She frowned. "Unfortunately, we don't have many choices if we want someone who would prioritize Molly. Even if Harry's judgement can be suspect."

"That might actually be the nicest thing you've ever said about me." Harry actually meant that. Heart meant a lot to the Carpenters. It kind of had to when you lived in the same house as the Sword of Love. So acknowledging that she trusted Harry to care, that was a big thing. Charity's only response was an eye roll. Some people just didn't appreciate sincerity.

"Just me?" Molly asked. Harry really wanted that hopeful tone to mean that she just wanted to avoid her little sister.

"We should really see if Tabitha has any other talents or if manipulating bio energy has some uses that might mean she could violate the Laws." And not because he wanted a buffer from any interest Molly might have, nope.

"So should I call you Obi-wan or Yoda?" Tabitha asked.

"He's a bit tall for Yoda." Molly snarked back.

Harry fixed them with a gimlet stare. "I'm not sure I can work with someone who's going to preempt my Star Wars jokes." Michael cleared his throat, causing Harry to sulk. "Fine, we'll see if this works."

* * *

Harry regretted that pretty quickly, like in barely a week. His first sign that things would go sideways was when he sent Tabitha to talk to Bob while he gave Molly a focusing exercise to start with. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea to send the nubile teenage girl to talk to the amoral perverted spirit, something that occurred to him right in the middle of explaining to Molly the visualization technique. At least Thomas was out on his new job, so there was only one deviant to manage. Harry rushed the explanation and went to check on the younger of the girls.

"-even a single perverted thought about my sister, you will regret it. I have the complete lack of shame that comes with being the third of eight children and I have exactly zero problem flooding this apartment with gay porn. Am I understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," Bob whimpered.

Harry sighed. "I don't know if you're spending too much time with Murphy or too little." Though props for using a threat that didn't contain physical violence.

"Hey, Qui-Gon. Just establishing boundaries."

"I'm getting a bit concerned that every nickname you use for me is a mentor figure that died."

Tabitha blinked innocently, too innocently for a fourteen year old who just threatened to fill his apartment with gay porn. "How many mentors in fiction actually survive their stories? Merlin, maybe?"

Harry closed his eyes briefly. "Don't call me that one, especially around other Council wizards. That's the actual title for the leader of the Council."

"Hmmm. Died. Died. Actually the villain. Died the backstory. Died in the sequel. Died. Hasn't been published yet. Died. Died."

"What was that about not being published yet?"

"Nothing," said Tabitha innocently.

"Time travel, including some forms of divination, are also against the Laws of magic."

"You're actually quite the stick in the mud."

Harry sighed again as he realized that being around the girls had turned him into every authority figure he ever ran into from the Council. Maybe he would have reacted better if he hadn't just found out about the Blackstaff… thing.

"He's not bad. He pays me in porn," Bob said.

"Anything good lately?"

"Well-"

"Bob!"

"C'mon, she's obviously already familiar-"

"Bob!"

Tabitha pouted. "Spoilsport. Oh, hey, you've got Fidelacchius down here."

Harry instinctively looked towards where he had the sword hidden. "How did you-?"

Tabitha rolled her eyes. "Please. I spent my whole life in the same house as one of the Swords. I know what one feels like."

Great and now he needed to add lessons about sensory abilities to the list, because that was not normal, not even for a wizard. Those lessons probably needed to include the ethics of using magical senses appropriately, which, god dammit, meant that he probably needed to make up with Ebenezer sooner than later. What were his other options? Morgan?

He laid down some rules about not talking about subjects that would get any of them murdered by an irate Knight of the Cross or his wife, which was mostly porn and sex, but definitely also included "classy adult literature," something that Tabitha brought up. Harry wondered if she wanted to torture him by showing him she knew about those kinds of loopholes or if she wanted to make sure that Bob knew not to talk about it. Who was he kidding? She definitely did it to mess with him. 

In any case, with the rules set, he told them to talk about what was possible with manipulating life energy and he went back to check on Molly. She was glowering at the candle as if it had personally insulted her. That had been more or less his reaction the first time he tried this exercise, just without the unconscious petting of the puppy sitting next to her. After walking her through a few visualization tips, he went back to see what kind of psychic damage Bob had inflicted on Tabitha. What he found was actually so much worse than that.

"-so the occlusion forms a new manifold between the occluding object and the liminal space."

Tabitha nodded. "And the union of manifolds projected by multiple occluding objects can itself form a new manifold."

"Right, right. But the transitory union manifold is fragile."

"So the obvious application is stasis."

"Exactly."

Right. Taking college courses at fourteen. "Do I want to know what you two are talking about?"

Tabitha blinked at him as if she forgot that she was in his apartment. "The applications of-"

"You got to dumb it down for him."

She gazed skyward for a few seconds and Harry could feel her rejecting multiple explanations as being over his head. "Shadows. We were talking about manipulating shadows with life energy."

Harry looked between the Spirit of Knowledge and the girl. "How does that make any sense?"

"Because."

Bob snickered. "He's not quite that dumb."

Harry rubbed his forehead. "Did you have to say 'quite'?"

Tabitha looked at Bob. "How do you dumb down carrier waveform resonance?"

"Just say symbolically."

Tabitha looked like she bit into a lemon. "That's so inexact."

"I know!"

"So symbolically light and life- Hey, there's an idea." She closed her eyes and suddenly her right arm turned into shadow. Then it lengthened into what Harry could only call a tentacle that split into three more tentacles. "Cool. That worked."

If Bob had hands he'd probably be clapping them in glee. "How are you stabilizing the-"

Harry closed his eyes, tuned out Bob's question and counted to ten. He needed that break to come to terms with the fact that Tabitha had his level of impulse control. Opening his eyes, he interrupted them. "You can undo that, right?" In that time the tentacles had become distinctly spiky, which at least meant it wasn't inspired by tentacle porn..., he hoped.

"Sure," she said and then her arm popped back to normal.

"Great. So you're only a part-time eldritch abomination."

"I like the sound of that." Tabitha shrugged. "Well, they say that college is the right time to explore alternative lifestyles."

"That's not what they mean by alternative lifestyles," Harry growled.

"I'm fourteen. What's left after you eliminate drinking, drugs and sex?"

"Communism?" pitched in Bob.

"Not helping." Harry rubbed his eyes. "I'm not looking forward to explaining this to your parents." Thankfully they knew Tabitha, so very little blame ended up being attached to Harry.

**Author's Note:**

> Harry is definitely annoyed that after being confronted by a sassy, pop culture quoting pain in the ass, he's become every fuddy duddy in authority that he ever hated. Molly is so getting a double helping of Star Wars quotes to compensate.
> 
> Yeah, the series is going to go completely off the rails after this.


End file.
